by CCW | 19 December 2019 20:00
Peace in the world is the theme of the Advent Ember season. The Ember Days remind us of the Pentecostal ministry of the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and of particular themes associated with the greater seasons within which they are placed. Peace in the world is much to be wanted. But how is it to be achieved?
The readings for the Advent Ember Days[1] speak profoundly to the desiderata of peace in the world. The conjunction of a reading from the prophet Micah with part of Luke’s account of the Annunciation illuminates the deeper wonder of Advent. Peace is in God and in us through God’s being with us, teaching us his ways; most profoundly in the coming of Christ through Mary, “most highly favoured lady.”
Micah’s prophecy or insight is proverbial with “swords being beaten into plowshares” and “spears into pruning-hooks.” The imagery evokes the transition from war to peace and peace envisioned at once in agricultural ways and in contemplative ways. “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree,” Micah says, “and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Peace is meaningless unless it is without fear. Peace is ultimately at God’s word.
Mary wonders at the initial salutation of the angel Gabriel. She was, we are told, “troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind” what it signifies. Gabriel responds, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus.” The angel goes on to speak of this child as “great” and as “the Son of the Highest” and “of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Among the names of Christ in the Christmas mystery as signalled by Isaiah is “Prince of Peace” and “mighty God” and “of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end.” Order and peace go together but they belong to God and so to God with us. “The Lord is with thee.”
Peace is a universal desire but as Micah shows it really belongs to teaching and to learning, to our learning the ways of God and walking in his paths. The Advent and Christmas message is that we are taught by God about God’s ways with us. Here that is signalled to us by prophecy and by the angel Gabriel. They are the messengers to us of what God seeks for us.
It belongs to the witness of the Church to recall us to these motions of divine love wherein we find our true peace. It is about nothing less than God in us and us in God. In Homer’s Iliad, there is a wonderful description of the proverbial Shield of Achilles. It depicts two cities, the city at war and the city at peace. Micah’s insight is about the transformation of the weapons of war into instruments of peace. That transformation is God’s will at work in us and most especially in the Annunciation to Mary through whom God becomes man and one with us, showing us by the nature of his being with us peace and salvation. It is not without price. Through his stripes we shall be healed, our peace purchased by his blood. Such is the greater transformation of human sin and wickedness into the peace of God in Christ, now and always.
“The peace of God,” as our liturgy constantly reminds us, is the peace “which passeth all understanding.” That is to say that it is not a matter of mere human contrivance, not a matter of our making, but of God’s making in us, in our hearts and in the banishing of all our fears. Such is the peace which Christ brings if we will be taught and learn of him.
Fr. David Curry
Eve of Advent Friday Ember Day
December 19th, 2019
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2019/12/19/sermon-for-the-eve-of-advent-ember-friday/
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